INGLEWOOD, CA -- Dressed as bees, several people collapsed on the floor of pesticide aisle at Home Depot on S La Cienega Blvd this Saturday morning.

Aside from the theatrics, the activists cheerfully announced to shoppers and staff alike, "today is International Honey Bee Day! Join the fight to Save the Bees!" and handed out pamphlets titled "The Plight of the Honeybee" linking the collapse of 40% of honey bee colonies in the last decade in the United States to the use of insecticidal seed treatment in genetically engineered (GE or GMO) crops.

Other actions in Southern California included ones in San Diego and Long Beach.

There is a growing movement in recognition of vegan prisoner rights as well as in providing more healthful non-animal foods.

Pictured at right: Dave McDonald, who was in jail in California on a dubious drug charge. A vegan who had been vegetarian for 42 years, the 73 year old man was not given vegan mails by the Marin County Jail. He lost 50 pounds. Being a philosophical vegan was not acceptable to jail officials. He had to be affiliated with a particular organized religion.

Jails serving higher percentages of vegan food find health care expense and food costs are reduced
and that prisoners are more peaceful because of less adrenalin and uric acid in the diet.

For the last eight or so years, the Rose Parade has been the focus of activism on issues such as U.S. military aggression, calls for George W. Bush's impeachment, crimes by banksters, the endangered U.S. Constitution, China's oppression of Tibet, and this year a Sea World float (featuring "happy" orcas) was the target of animal rights activists. (According to the KPFK evening news (1-02-14) Wall Street was also depicted in an "unofficial" float entry near the beginning of the parade route. Discussion of it begins near the 30-minute mark.)

Nineteen animal rights activists were arrested for trying to block the Sea World float. Protesters at several locations along the route held up signs as the float passed. The float was accompanied by police, some in riot gear, in areas where activists were known to be. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of leaflets were distributed to parade spectators.

Birds rescued from meat production, cock fighting rings, and the ritual of Kaporot have, in many cases, gone on to live decent/happy lives (some of them have even reproduced). Profiled here are turkeys Biggie and Autumn Tootsie of Riverside; Pooka, a goose in northeast L.A.; and several chickens. People who rescue them give advice about mistakes to avoid.

"There's nothing more impressive than looking at these turkeys every day and just counting the blessings that they've been given--and they know it," says Jen DeCarlo. "They're very grateful animals, just like we're very grateful humans to have them here. That's two less on someone's Thanksgiving platter, which is better than both of them being gone.

" . . . Our species domesticated them, so now we have to take care of the damage we've done. They can't go out and do it themselves anymore."

Just 10 years after the Ballona Wetlands were acquired and preserved (an endeavor that took decades), they are again under attack. The Annenberg Foundation, which has done impressive work elsewhere, plans to purchase the wetlands, develop part of it, and restore Area C. The latter proposal has been described as "a phony restoration" to "give crony engineering companies some business" and "way too aggressive" for the highly- sensitive habitat. Annenberg claims their plans have been misrepresented, but there was no elaboration.

On Thursday, October 17, a demonstration was held outside the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills during that facility's very extravagant grand opening. Protest signs supported Annenberg's various plans, that include a pet rescue center, but lambasted any construction on or restoration of Ballona, which is among the remaining five percent of L.A.'s wetlands that has not been destroyed.

July 10, 2013: Some one hundred people protested the Ringling Bros. Circus on opening night at Staples Center. Much emphasis was placed on cruel treatment of animals and separating them from their natural environments and families. (Objection to incarceration and training of animals is nothing new--although a recent DVD documentary called No Fun for Elephants has shed additional light on animal abuse with its undercover footage of elephants being brutalized right here in California. Excerpts of it have been played on KPFK (90.7 FM). Some footage can be seen on YouTube here and here.)

Activity books were offered to small children, many of whom took interest in them. Children also showed interest in large photos of animals being treated inhumanely. At least one family, consisting of a mother and three children, changed its mind about attending Ringling and decided to do something else.

Protests of Ringling Bros. circuses are happening all over. "PETA volunteers will go to every city that Ringling Bros. goes to," said co-organizer and Campaigns Manager for PETA Katie Arth, "whether you're in cities like Los Angeles and New York or Biloxi, Mississippi."

Animal Defenders International (ADI) has launched the first nationwide initiative in the United States about the use of elephants giving rides or making appearances at public events. At the heart of the campaign is a new DVD narrated by Emmy award winning TV host Bob Barker entitled "No Fun For Elephants," featuring harrowing undercover footage from inside elephant training facilities in California, as well as abuse of an elephant on tour by a Texas-owned company.

The video includes ADI undercover footage showing elephants supplied for rides, appearances and other events by Have Trunk Will Travel of Perris, CA and Trunks & Humps of Conroe, TX, being beaten and electric shocked during training and handling, behind the scenes. The same trainers are then shown with the elephants, giving rides and appearing at parades.

The move comes as Los Angeles City Council is considering a motion to prohibit performing elephants with traveling circuses in the city -- the new video will be sent to all City Council members.

Demonstrations have occurred in 46 cities around the world. The message to the International Olympic Committee: don't award the 2020 Olympics to Japan. The cruel dolphin drives in Taiji serve Japan's meat industry and provide slave entertainment to marine parks worldwide.

The Japanese people are not the target. This problem was kept secret from them for a long time (the Oscar-winning documentary the Cove got very little exposure in Japan)--but now, many of them are protesting, too.

Yesterday in Los Angeles, a protest and awareness-building campaign was held outside the Japanese Consulate on Grand Avenue in downtown. Fancy flyers were distributed, petitions circulated (four pages of them got signed), and there was plenty of chanting.

Jacob Gutierrez, a Tongva, has a lot on his plate right now. The last science center in the LA Unified School District is "on the chopping block" due to budget cuts in education. (LAUSD originally had six.) This facility has been a resource for everyone in the community, especially children. It contains several gardens, consisting of over 80 native plants and fruit trees. Native wildlife is drawn there, including blue butterflies. There are also over 150 animals that children can visit, all rescues. Oftentimes they have been confiscated by the U.S. Government at the southern border and would have been killed were it not for the Center.

Just up the street is the site of Shwaanga (Ken Malloy Regional Park), one of the largest Tongva villages in pre-Spanish times, a site which has been suffering from pollution in recent centuries. In pre-European times, people would travel by boat from islands including Pimu (Catalina Island) and numerous inland communities via canoelike boats plying rivers, as well as different parts of the California coast. Among other things, Shwaanga was known for its fresh water. Now the water is heavily polluted and needs to be cleaned up.

Actor Rik Martino claimed his pigeons at animal control, only to find that they had been euthanized. Martino loves pigeons, and he has rescued and cared for many that were injured and ill. In the summer of 2011, hard times fell on Martino, and he lost his apartment. . . . Animal control confiscated Martino's pigeons, because they did not approve of the type of cages they were housed in. The officer told Martino he could claim the pigeons at the animal shelter after a few days. When Martino came back to claim his pigeons, animal control told him there wasn't enough room in the shelter to house the pigeons so they euthanized them.

A loud and vigorous protest was aimed at the walls of BlackRock, Inc. which is an American multinational investment management corporation for it's association with Astra Zeneca who contracts with Huntington Life Sciences or HLS. The company conducts experiments on various primates and mammals in the context of toxic household substances and their harmful effects.

There has been a ten year campaign to shut HLS down with companies such as ARCO, Johnson and Johnson, Charles Swab, Merril Lynch, Novartis and Xerox cutting their ties to the firm.

June 2011: After months of scanning, laying out, editing, polishing, and re-polishing, the Underground book is finished, printed, and ready to ship. Underground is 500+ pages of history, interviews, how-to articles, and essays on and by the Animal Liberation Front.

Here is just a sample of the many chapters: *Dealing with grand juries *How to sabotage traps *Directory of infiltrators and informants *Letter from A.L.F. prisoner David Barbarash *Anti-prison work and the animal liberation movement *Choosing A.L.F. Targets *Security tips for activists *Fishing sabotage tactics *Fur farm liberations *How the A.L.F. raided the University of Arizona *Mink liberation myths vs. facts. *Burned-down Oregon slaughterhouse closes *A.L.F. documentary announced *List of U.S. fur farm raids....

Advocating the abolition of meat is the logical extension of vegetarianism or veganism. People who are against bull-fighting do not only ask the public to boycott bull-fighting events, they ask for bull-fighting to be banned. The opponents of "foie gras" do not only advise people against buying it, they want force feeding to be banned. Why would the opponents of meat be the only ones to restrict themselves to giving individual advice?

The refusal to eat meat can be seen as a political boycott and as the expression of one's support for the demand for abolition similar to the campaign for the abolition of slavery in Britain at the end the 18th century where 300,000 people boycotted the sugar produced from slave plantations. . . .

This week TV stations are observing Shark Week by running shows that play on people's fear of sharks. One even re-creates a grisly attack on a human. Meanwhile, individuals are paying homage to Jaws on their websites. It seems like a better way to observe Shark Week might be to learn more about sharks, how best to avoid contact with certain ones, and how we humans are eradicating them out of existence. Instead, sharks continue to be vilified, and the misconceptions (many arguably the result of Jaws) are being perpetuated. All of this makes them more desirable as hunting trophies, meals, and aquarium exhibits.

Animal Rights activists took their message to 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica on Memorial Day to protest the use of live animals in experiments at UCLA and Cedars Sinai. Veiled Animal Rights activists dressed in black carried a coffin and signs down one of Los Angeles's busiest shopping streets on Sunday May 29th in memoriam for the millions of animals that die annually in laboratories.
Passersby were stopped in their tracks as the procession wound it's way slowly down 3rd Street Promenade. Organized by Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! Los Angeles chapter.

About 50 activists gathered in Westwood to protest the use of live animals in outdated experiments at UCLA. Four activists dressed as a monkey, rabbit, beagle and cat with bloody bandages sat in cages for hours until they were "liberated" by masked activists dressed in black.

Since the early 80's UCLA has been funded by government agencies NIH and NEI to perform questionable experiments on live animals such as methamphetamine and tobacco addiction in non-human primates. Joaquin Fuster has received over $5,000,000.00 to study the stimuli of non-human primates brains. A barbaric experiment which involves restraining non human primates in restraint chairs, drilling into their skulls, inserting electrodes and in order to force them to "reach" for sustenance deprives them of food and water for up to 24 hours. These experiments often result in infections of the brain and are most certainly invasive, painful and unnecessary causing extreme stress and eventual death of the monkey. Virtually identical research funded by taxpayers is being done in other Californian universities as well as hundreds of labs across the states with no benefit to medical advancement.

On August 31, 2009 an appeals judge lifted an existing ban on Navy sonar, and ruled against a lawsuit that would have prevented the U.S. Navy from resuming sonar training exercises off Southern California. The training exercises thus commenced on September 11, 2009 off San Diego. Within two weeks at least three great blue whales were reported floating dead off the Southern California coast. On October 12, another great blue whale was found dead off Big Sur. On Monday, October 19 yet another blue whale washed ashore, this time at Fort Bragg in Northern California. The latest incident has raised serious questions of whether or not the sonar used by the survey vessel confirmed to have hit the whale might have been responsible.

Thursday, June 25, 2009: PETA activists staged a 'caged tiger' protest in downtown Anaheim. Their goal: to educate the public about Ringling Circus animal abuse. One supporter pointed out that animals suffer as do humans, and that "the planet belongs to them, too."

"I think it's very sad that we use animals for entertainment," remarked another supporter. A passerby was more critical, saying that "you" need to start by learning to respect people first.

There is a better way to deal with insects. Various companies make a science toy called the Bug Vacuum. (The one I've been using is made by a company called Summit, which I bought at a school supply store .) It sucks insects into a transparent holding area so that children can study them and then turn them loose. However, for the last several years, I've been using it to catch bugs in my home and set them free outside.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just moved a step closer to allowing companies to create genetically engineered animals. The FDA is proposing to allow the creation of animals that will be used to produce medicine, organs for transplant, meat or genetically engineered pets; and experiment subjects.

Canadian author Margaret Atwood wrote about many of these same possibilities in her best-selling and starkly apocalyptic book Oryx and Crake. It seems that in 2003, Atwood's book made more waves and garnered more headlines than the recent FDA's public forum requesting input on their proposed Draft Guidance for Industry: Regulation of genetically engineered animals containing heritable rDNA constructs.

The LA Zoo recently spammed its member email list and urged everyone to call local government and to take shuttles to city council meetings to voice their support for the Pachyderm Forest elephant exhibit that is currently under construction. The used a very nasty tone in emails sent and referred to the animal rights activists and city council member who are against the exhibit as "a small group of extremists" and continued on to say they were trying "to deny your families and your children the opportunity to see these magnificent creatures in a spacious, nurturing environment at the Zoo." . . . I strongly disagree with the zoo and side with those opposing this exhibit. The zoo should be spending their money and using their extra space to expand and repair the existing animal exhibits to make life a bit better for the creatures already having to live there. . . .

Between June 2006 and August 2007 tree rats entered my house. My (ultimately successful) quest to achieve peaceful coexistence with them was very much of a learning process. It seems that we have achieved not only peaceful coexistence but also a symbiotic relationship. The following story is based on a journal I kept during this period.

The Humane Society of United States' recent undercover investigation of a southern California slaughterhouse is shocking -- with cows unable to move being rammed with the blades of a forklift, jabbed in the eyes, stabbed with electric prods and sprayed in the nose with high-pressure water hoses. Animal experts have called this one of the worst cases of animal abuse they have ever seen. . . . Here Are 5 Things You Can Do to Stop Factory Farming Cruelty...

We, the undersigned, members of an international coalition of many NGOs, biologists and activists concerned for the welfare of wild animals, are writing to express our grave concerns on behalf of Venezuelan decision in Margarita Island (Nueva Esparta State) to authorize and support the operation of a zoo and aquarium inside the facilities of the amusement complex made up by the Dolphinarium Waterland Mundo Submarino -- Marino and Diverland Park. For the last 15 years, Water Land 's show has generated controversy around the world. In Argentina they took Cheryl (a Russian dolphin) away from Mr. Ric O'Barry, against the decision of a court order that gave him the permit to transport and release that dolphin. The company ran away with Cheryl and then in 1997 the dolphin died because of stress in Margarita Island, inside their facilities.

This upcoming 10/16/07 will be an International Day of Action against the McDonalds corporation, an entity responsible for factory farming cruelty and pollution, rainforest clearcutting, worker abuse and increasing heart disease by serving cholesterol saturated burgers to the consumers and calling it nutritious food! Show your resistance to this fast food megacorporation at a McDonalds store near you!

Orange County, CA: In an anonymous communique received by the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, the Animal Liberation Front claims to have ruined the paint jobs on an executive's luxury automobile and home in retaliation for his company's role in supporting animal testing. Paul Moravek, of Fullerton, is owner of Moravek Biochemicals, a known supplier of notorious contract animal testing company Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), Europe's largest such company.

August 21, 2007 Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced on the steps of City Hall that Los Angeles Animal Services was the number one and largest pet adoption agency in the nation. That's wonderful news except for the fact that it's completely untrue. LA Animal Services isn't even the largest or best in the immediate area.

". . . My first experience with him was on paper. In 1985, I read his book, In Defense of Animals, in which he talks about "speciesism," a prejudice similar to racism and sexism in which humans believe they are superior to other species. Singer argues that nonhumans are of equal value to humans and worthy of equal consideration and that an animal's ability to feel pain should give him protection under the moral umbrella that humans typically reserve for themselves.

". . . When I heard that the normally reclusive Singer--who lives in Australia and New Jersey and who is called the Father of the Animal Rights movement--would be speaking at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles about animals and art, I figured why not take him out for a bite? . . . "

In astounding news earlier this week the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services announced that they are basically closing the shelter doors to owner relinquished animals. Their rationale behind this move as per Ed Boks the General Manager is to "fine tune" "the population during the annual spring/summer crush of neonatal turn-ins." Read that, "we have no more room because we've been warehousing animals all year to keep our euthanasia rate artificially low to try to make me look good.

Save Our Dogs is a grassroots effort to save working dogs from AB 1634, the mandatory spay/neuter bill. We strongly support their efforts and their goal and hope you will join with us to prevent this bill from passing.

The real problem in California animal shelters is not too many puppies. It is too many adult dogs who are abandoned. Mandatory spay/neuter won't make owners take responsibility for their dogs, so where is the benefit?

Planning a vacation to the American West this summer? How about boycotting the State of Montana in protest of their intended slaughter of 300 wild bison, including many small nursing calves, in the next few days.

The Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) has set up a bison trap near the West Yellowstone airport, on state land and they intend to begin capturing approximately 300 wild buffalo, including tiny newborns and their whole families, beginning Thursday, May 31.

World Week for Animals in Laboratories ( WWAIL ) is an annual event designed to expose the plight of animals used for testing and research. WWAIL seeks to arouse concern for animals in laboratories as well as educate the public about the scientific, moral, and economic objections to animal experimentation, also known as vivisection. WWAIL 2007 will be observed during the week of April 22-28.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa promised to make LA a NoKill City. He hired Ed Boks as the new General Manager. In his first year Boks has failed to reduce the euthanasia rate. Fewer animals made it out alive, fewer were adopted. What went wrong? And what is the Mayor going to do about it?

Grassroots activists have won yet again, as the POM juice company issued a public statement yesterday that they would never test on animals again. This is very significant since POM has spent millions of dollars on animal experiments in the past 10 years, including inducing erectile disfunction and depriving oxygen to animals' brains. Hats are off to L.A. area activists for their successful campaign against POM!).

In December 2006 & January 2007, the Japanese whaling fleet will begin to illegally kill 1,000 whales in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary. Fifty of these whales will be endangered humpbacks and another fifty will be endangered fin whales. Although the Japanese claim research as their motivation, the only research they are undertaking is product development and marketing of whale meat -- to turn their illicit whale flesh into dog food, cosmetics, and sushi dishes they make huge profits.

In the past two years there has been a resurgence in the number of bed bug infestations in North America.
Bed bug city has maps showing the extent of the plague, with the situation being worst with some of the heaviest infestations spreading in the Western Coastal regions of the United States which has a climate the most favorable to year round bed bug travelling (they are killed in winter should they be found outside the warm comfort of a nest in someone's bedroom, which inhibits their ability to travel in some regions of the country).

Los Angeles- Search warrants were served on the residences Tuesday of two North American Animal Liberation Press Officers by the Santa Monica Police Department. No arrests were made, and no reason was given for the warrants, signed by Los Angeles Appellate Judge Paul Turner. Thousands of dollars worth of private items were taken with no explanation, confounding animal activists in the Los Angeles area, which has seen increasingly effective animal advocacy in the last several years.

From the story: On Friday August 4th and Sunday August 6th a dedicated group of 25 or so
California activists protested the juice company, [POM Wonderful], for a
weekend of action against killing and torturing animals for juice. In order
to make health claims about pomegranate juice, POM resorted to funding
experiments where scientists temporarily lowered brain oxygen levels and
brain blood flow in newborn mice then forced their mothers to drink water
mixed with pomegranate concentrate amongst other cruel test... In response, we took it to the front doors of POM's
executives to let them know what we thought of their "health claims".

Several carloads of activists arrived at the palatial ocean front Palos
Verdes Estates estate of President and [Phenomenex] CEO Fasha Mahjoor,for the first
of three demos against his
company. With glee we noted the line of cars filling his long driveway --
he must have forgotten to send us party invitations. Not to worry; we
decided that we would ask to come join the party and discuss his company's
ties with [Huntingdon Life Sciences].

Feral Cat Alliance Seeks Home for Rescued Cats

The Feral Cat Alliance of Los Angeles recently rescued a large number of cats which had been abandoned in the San Gabriel Mountains after their families had been evicted, putting many of their guardians on the streets, homeless, and incapable of caring for their equally homeless cats.